Blackie Lawless (born Steven Edward Duren on September 4, 1956, in Staten Island, New York), is an American singer, songwriter and musician best known as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist for heavy metal band W.A.S.P.. He has become notorious in the heavy metal community for his live performances, controversial album covers and lyrics.
Lawless' musical interests began when he was nine years old ("My brother had a guitar and I used to sneak down to his bedroom and play it when he wasn't there"), he had his first guitar about a year later and earned his first pocket money with his first band called "The Underside."
At 16, Lawless played with the band "Black Rabbit" in local bars, another early band was "Orfax Rainbow." After leaving high school he worked two years for his father's construction firm.
In 1976, he formed Sister, who are believed to be the first Los Angeles group to use the (inverted) pentagram as their logo. Randy Piper, later of W.A.S.P., was Sister's second and longest-staying guitar player. Lawless' stage antics at the time included lighting his boots on fire (the trick he later gave to Nikki Sixx) and eating live worms. Around 1978, a new lineup was assembled that included the aforementioned Sixx on the bass and Lizzie Grey on guitars. This lineup tried to record a few songs, but the outcome was so terrible they decided to scrap the idea altogether. Around that time, Chris Holmes came into the picture for the first time to play guitar. According to Holmes, this lineup managed to play live at least once.
After this version of Sister failed in its turn, Lawless started his next band "Circus Circus", in 1979, with Randy Piper again appearing in the lineup. When it became clear that this band was going nowhere as well, in 1981, Lawless joined Lizzie Grey and Nikki Sixx's relatively successful London, with whom he played a few gigs and recorded two songs as demos, already without Sixx, who'd left to form Mötley Crüe. In 1982 Lawless assumed bass duties and along with Randy Piper formed W.A.S.P.. The lineup was soon completed with Chris Holmes on lead guitar and Tony Richards on drums.
Lawless' influences include AC/DC, Black Sabbath and the Beatles. His notorious stage theatrics were influenced by Alice Cooper and The Who, but he took it one step further with throwing raw meat into the audience and girls positioned on torture racks. During the 1980s he was severely criticized by organizations like the Parents Music Resource Center because of W.A.S.P.'s rather extreme live shows with concerts regularly cancelled by local authorities and, in some countries, banned from playing entirely. Lawless has sued and won a case against PMRC for copyright infringements.
In 2003 Lawless was an outspoken defender of Pete Townshend (from The Who), who was arrested on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children. W.A.S.P. did a cover song from The Who's "The Real Me" on the The Headless Children (1989) CD.
Lawless was asked to play Sammi Curr in the horror film Trick or Treat (1986), but declined the offer. The role was instead given to Tony Fields.
Lawless was also considered for the role of the liquid-metal T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, although his height proved to be a problem. The role of the original Terminator had been written for a man of average stature, who could easily blend in to a crowd, and James Cameron wanted to apply that original concept to dramatic effect for the T-1000. In an AOL chat, Lawless explained: "Probably the biggest regret that I have, though I didn't turn it down, was a part in Terminator 2 that Robert Patrick got. Schwarzenegger wanted me to do the part, but when he found out I was 6'4", I couldn't. I regret not being able to do that."
The band cancelled its previously announced European dates in July 2006, after Lawless was diagnosed with an abnormality in one of the arteries leading to his heart. He's now fine after some rest and special treatment. Later on he announced new European dates for the same year.
All rumours about Lawless having a bad heart have been declared false by his representatives at the official W.A.S.P. Website. As have rumours about him being killed in a car accident in 2007.
In October 2007, the band announced that no recording devices, including phones with cameras, would be allowed into shows and any phones found by security would be confiscated, for the duration of The Crimson Idol tour. It is speculated that this was mostly due to W.A.S.P's decreasing record sales, but is also thought to be to protect the video footage shown onscreen during the concert. However this turned out not to be the case, as many of the audience members proceeded to take pictures of the band whilst they were onstage performing.
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